I would think it would "seem" most useful to thsoe who don't want to learn Greek but would like
to believe they are really getting to the heart of what the Greek text says. And if it seems to the
user to accomplish that feat. it even fosters a sense that the English version is a more natural
expression of what the Greek actually says. It's a matter of linguistic prestidigitation.

I would think it would "seem" most useful to thsoe who don't want to learn Greek but would like
to believe they are really getting to the heart of what the Greek text says. And if it seems to the
user to accomplish that feat. it even fosters a sense that the English version is a more natural
expression of what the Greek actually says. It's a matter of linguistic prestidigitation.

That's probably true, Carl.

But that doesn't mean we cannot borrow and adapt such tools for our own non-standard uses that go well beyond the their intended purpose.

I, myself, use reverse interlinears for compiling grammatical judgments of translators. The ability to compile lists of how a given lexeme in a particular tense is translated across a large corpus by the same people has the potential to be quite illuminating--particularly when I can collate the judgments of multiple translation (e.g. NRSV, NIV, NASB, etc) together. I cannot think of a faster or more convenient to way to catalog all the places where a perfect is translated as an English stative rather than a English perfect. And from there, that data can be sorted by lexeme, which then allows for discovering other patterns of usage and an (at least rudimentary) sorting of Greek perfects into lexical classes. It may not be complete or perhaps, but it is effective and useful starting point.

MAubrey wrote:But that doesn't mean we cannot borrow and adapt such tools for our own non-standard uses that go well beyond the their intended purpose.

I, myself, use reverse interlinears for compiling grammatical judgments of translators. The ability to compile lists of how a given lexeme in a particular tense is translated across a large corpus by the same people has the potential to be quite illuminating--particularly when I can collate the judgments of multiple translation (e.g. NRSV, NIV, NASB, etc) together. I cannot think of a faster or more convenient to way to catalog all the places where a perfect is translated as an English stative rather than a English perfect. And from there, that data can be sorted by lexeme, which then allows for discovering other patterns of usage and an (at least rudimentary) sorting of Greek perfects into lexical classes. It may not be complete or perhaps, but it is effective and useful starting point.

Jonathan Robie wrote:Do you have an example of this that you can point to or share?

Well, here's a screen clipping of a search in the NRSV reverse interlinear that shows some of what I'm doing:

Considering that John Lee demonstrated so clearly that the glosses in our lexicons, for the most part, are little more than collections from translations, in some sense, this is no different than that and generally more comprehensive, though obviously limited to the NT (and in the case of the NRSV, also the Apocrypha)...which is unfortunate.